The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design will confer an honorary doctorate on Will Allen, founder and CEO of the internationally renowned Growing Power, Inc., at the college’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 15.
Allen is the only Milwaukeean to receive a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for transforming his vision of a holistic urban farm providing healthy food, education and jobs to an underserved community into a national training center for activists in the community food movement and a research institution creating food production models that can be exported internationally.
“Through his vision and problem solving, Will Allen transcended a practical, everyday problem with an innovative solution that, from its origins in 1993, has grown to embrace the urban needs of local communities in the United States and the world,” said MIAD President Neil Hoffman. “His resourcefulness, determination and humility hold lessons for the power of one person, armed with a creative idea, to truly affect change at the most fundamental human level.”
Allen has advised President Barack Obama’s transition team on agricultural policy and will bring his food production model to South Africa and Zimbabwe as part of the Clinton Global Initiative of former President Bill Clinton. MIAD students are actively involved in Growing Power through the college’s Service Learning Program; for almost ten years, many students have chosen the organization to fulfill their community service requirement.
